Studying and Learning at Home

How to help your child learn effectively at home for tests and exams

Encourage your child to login to the school website regularly. A homework schedule is available for each curriculum area.

Make sure that your child is checking their school email account regularly.

Your child should be logging on to Smarthomework and Google Classroom to see what work needs to either completed or learnt.

Teacher will using these two digital tools to share essential learning for students to master. Students often ask “How should I revise?” Once they have the learning content e.g a model answer or explanation they will need to use certain strategies to ensure they can retain this knowledge over time. Below are summaries of the 6 most effective strategies to learn, test and remember knowledge.

These 6 graphic posters explain what students can do to maximise their time spent learning

More tips to support learners outside of the classroom

Share your ideas about the importance of education with your child.

Create a culture of reading – when your child has read a book ask them to discuss it with you. Be a reading role model! Show your child that you are reading and discuss what you are reading with them.

Have a range of reading material available at home. Newspapers, magazines and books are a cheap and accessible resource and will help your child develop their vocabulary and an awareness of different types of writing.

Join a local library.

Encourage your child to use higher level language.

Practice times tables.

Watch a television programme together. Ask your child to summarise the main points made in the programme or the most important things that happened. This is a great way of developing your child’s ability to select and summarise information. It also improves their spoken communication.

Ask your child to help you with the spelling of a word you are unsure of. Encourage them to think of strategies to help you remember how to spell the word e.g. silly rhymes, acronyms etc. Ensure that your child uses a dictionary and thesaurus frequently.

Ask your child lots of ‘how’ and why’ questions. These questions will encourage them to develop more detailed responses when speaking and will develop their ability to explain their ideas and thoughts effectively.

When texting your child, avoid using ‘text speak’ and write the words in full, using punctuation. Ask your child to text in the same way. Even if you only do this occasionally, you will be encouraging your child to use the standard of English expected in their school work.

If you have to complete a form for your child e.g. a passport application, sit with your child and complete the form together. Learning how to complete an application form is a really useful skill.

If your child has younger siblings, ask your child to help them with homework. This is a very effective way of helping your child develop their communication skills.

Question your child about what they have learned at school – get them to teach you.